The present Application relates to composite materials, including textile- and fiber-reinforced cementitious composites. Specifically, the present Application relates to a flexible pre-fabricated textile and fiber reinforced cementitious composite capable of in-situ hydration (i.e. in place, on location, on a construction site, etc.). In-situ hydration allows for a liquid to be topically applied and react with a volume of cementitious material within the composite. This reaction occurs while the composite is in position and does not disturb the pre-fabricated nature of the composite. Such a cementitious composite material allows cementitious material to set and harden within the composite without requiring traditional mixing procedures.
Traditional textile-reinforced composites typically include at least one layer of a two-dimensional textile and a layer of concrete to form a laminated composite. Such laminated composites may exhibit excellent in-plane properties but poor inter-laminar properties due to a lack of reinforcement in the thickness direction (i.e. a direction orthogonal to a surface of the composite) or weak bonding of the layers. This deficiency exposes the composite to the possibility of damage or delamination when experiencing inter-laminar stresses. While traditional composites include plain weave fabrics or multiple layers of fabric to improve performance, these systems may still fail easily under loading.
Other cementitious composites include woven or knitted three-dimensional textiles configured to entrap cementitious material between two layers. Such woven or knitted three-dimensional textiles may not independently function to secure cementitious materials for in-situ hydration. These woven or knitted layers may need to be formed between other layers before they can entrap cementitious materials.